China

Foreigners in China

To flee or not to flee?

IT MAY not count as an exodus. Indeed, it doesn’t even satisfy that hoary old journalistic definition of a trend: three examples.

Separately, a pair of expatriates long based in China have written heartfelt accounts of their decisions to leave the country. And though few in number, they have attracted a great deal of heartfelt attention from many other “old China hands”, as foreigners who have chosen to make their lives, careers and homes here sometimes like to call themselves.

As a member with 23 years’ worth of Beijing-based standing in that tribe, I read both posts with particular interest. For my part, I do not intend to leave any time soon—nor to indulge in navel-gazing about the complex weighting of the family, environmental and social reasons I have for deciding where to live. But the issues raised in these two pieces are worth considering. Foreigners, after all, are not the only ones pondering them and choosing, sometimes, to leave.

In one of the recent expatriate accounts, an American film-maker, editor and blogger named Charlie Custer said most of his reasons were personal—and that none of them had to do with ugly threats he’d received since entering into a nasty public feud with a prominent Chinese television personality, Yang Rui. However Mr Custer did acknowledge feeling distress over China’s lack of a free press and rule of law. And he mentioned that his past couple of years had been not only “depressing” and “soul-crushing”, but also “occasionally terrifying”.

However he cited as bigger problems air pollution and food safety. These were the most important factors behind his decision to leave Beijing, after a four-year stay. “I like breathing,” and “eating also is fun,” he wrote in pithy summary.

These are not concerns to be taken lightly. Chinese officials have been struggling with their cities’ worsening smog for some years now. They are probably better focused on it now than officials in Los Angeles or London were when those cities were at comparable stages of development. Even so, it will be a long time before conditions improve. Meanwhile health officials in Beijing have acknowledged a 60% increase in the rate of lung cancer in the city over the past decade, even after factoring out any increase in smoking rates.

As Mr Custer notes in his piece, “It’s almost cliché to complain about the air quality in Beijing; it’s terrible and everyone knows it. People here just deal as best they can.” And as bad as that is on the bad days, it’s worth noting that average life expectancy in Beijing last year stood at 81.12 years. That compares admirably with 80.6 years in New York City, and 84.4 years for men in the nicer parts of London. Bad air and bad food are bad, but it seems that people do, as Mr Custer writes, “deal”.

If staying alive is the goal, it may be wiser to remove one’s head from the bilious clouds and fix them squarely on the road. One interesting study, published by the World Health Organisation last year, found that injuries from traffic accidents had a surprisingly large impact on life expectancy rates in large Chinese cities.

Another bit of useful perspective was provided this month by The Economist’s sister organisation, The Economist Intelligence Unit, which released the results of its latest liveability survey of 140 cities around the world. Beijing ranked 72nd and Shanghai 78th. That leaves them far behind the perennial top-tier garden spots like Melbourne, Vancouver and Vienna. But it also places them well ahead of such proud places as Istanbul, Dubai and Rio de Janeiro.

Of course none of that diminishes the impact of bad air and tainted food on the quality of life. These ranked high among reasons for leaving not only with Mr Custer but also in Hurun’s study with the Bank of China. As did China’s high levels of corruption, its wobbly legal environment, and its education system. In China, some people of means tend to worry about the possibility of legal probes into how they amassed their fortunes. Many of high political standing feel the need to make contingency plans for a breakdown in stability, such as some people fear could come at any time. As we wrote in May, the term “naked officials” is commonly used to describe the large number of Communist party members and government workers who prepare for the worst by sending their families and assets abroad.

An essay by Mark Kitto, a Briton who first came to China as a student in 1986, ventured into more thought-provoking realms. After living here for the past 16 years as a businessman, Mr Kitto decided he’d had enough. Some of his motivations match those of the wealthy Chinese who choose to leave. He cited concerns that “the air my family breathes and the food we eat is doing us physical harm” but added that the “one overriding reason I must leave China” is the need to give his children a decent education.

Other aspects of Mr Kitto’s experience might only make sense to a foreigner, and a disillusioned one at that. “I have fallen out of love, woken from my China Dream,” he wrote.

Upon returning to China in the mid-1990s, after a post-graduate period spent away, he noted a widespread difference since the time of his student days. An air of optimism remained, but then he also detected “a distinct whiff of commerce in place of community”. Mr Kitto bemoaned China’s shift from a traditional family culture to a “me” culture, and its rush toward materialism and conspicuous consumption.

Mr Kitto also wrote that he wanted, in a certain sense, to “become Chinese.” He acknowledges that this was never possible—but not that he was naive to think it might be. Eventually he came to find that his “desire to be part of a community and no longer be treated as an outsider” was not attainable. He concludes with hopes that someday the hundreds of thousands of Chinese people whom he knows to be trying to make China a better place will prevail. “That’ll be a good time to become Chinese. It might even be possible,” he wrote.

On that point, I remain sceptical. It is hard to imagine that Mr Kitto’s dream of becoming Chinese, or being accepted as anything close to it, will ever be feasible. I know an American man who moved to China and married a local woman in the 1940s. He took Chinese citizenship in the 1960s, and has lived in the same Beijing courtyard house for 60 years. When visitors come to call, his neighbours helpfully point them to the door of the “old foreigner.”

There are plenty of “old China hands”—myself included—who are content to hang on in spite of the hardships, the challenges, and our inability to become Chinese. Joining us are many younger ones. They are drawn by the sort of excitement and opportunity that can be found in a place that is changing fast and undoubtedly poised to become ever more important to the rest of the world.

Wherever China goes from here, it remains a fascinating thing to watch and to be a part of—even if one must remain contented with “permanent observer” status.

I agree with guest-iomjeoj completely. Most Asians, if they were born in the US and thus can speak English naively and understand American culture, would not be treated as a "foreigner" by most Americans.

Sure there are lots of individual racists left in America, but no major institution, government or private, that I can think of is racist. In fact, major institutions all seem to be very keen on exterminating racism in the US, and most have established anti-racism or pro-diversity programs.

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"Even though the Chinese started to arrive in the 1800s as railroad workers, my guess is, just like the Japanese(or perhaps even more so), those early arrivals have gradually "disappeared" due to inter-marriage."

Ha I am actually one of these mixed-race Eurasians. But I haven't "disappeared".....

Your argument points are weak to justify anything except the well off Chinese tendency to study abroad. It is quite common for the first rate students to be admitted into the home universities. In most cases, its the second rate and the rich who will opt for overseas study. China is a developing country. They have yet to spend up to 4% of the expenditure revenue on education. Education is very important to the long term development of a country. But it should not be regarded as the sole yardstick to tell the national prowess. Universities in the west are good. But they have a number of problems which are hard to be resolved. The educational staff are all overpaid and reluctant to accept adjustment. The finance situation of some universities is in trouble because of the poor performance of the investment portfolio. Moreover, the donation seems to be diminishing. Sustainability is in doubt. Thats why the rich students are the most sought after by the needy. China exports so many of such students to the benefit of the west. But China maintains a pool of top rate students and reaps 500k engineering grads every year. Just look at the stunning figure which eclipses the overseas figure in a large margin, there is no reason to worry about the drain. Education is just one of the many fronts China is improving. China is a big cauldron producing a lot of cream, layer after layer. Nowadays, the grads have the freedom to choose their job. Here or overseas. Its the HR development of the country. Great! By the way, some of the foreign universities have plan to start the local branch campuses in China. How do you like it? Sweet or sour or both?

This is truly evidence this your job. Who pays you for such rhetoric? You of all people should well know, that between all of us in the family we must put together the money for the best school we can afford - because we are not rich enough to flee as you implore. Nor really willing to, but are pragmatic. This is China today and for the foreseeable future for our son -- the last of us until he marries.

@East Wind, Yes, money is important. It's the all consuming pursuit of it I have a problem with.

My parents both came from very humble beginnings, my father from a farm in the US, my mother one of 10 children in Europe. She worked from a very young age to help her family. That's how things were. The unfortunate result was they spent the rest of their lives in a kind of fear they might lose it, and thinking only of the next step in acquiring home, furnishings, etc. This took precedence over all else.

Because of that generations hard work, my generation and those younger have it good. But whereas in the 'West' most average people find the single minded accumulation of assets unhealthy (and often embarrassing), and favor a balanced life, I don't see that nearly as much in China. Chinese don't know who they are anymore, China has tragically had much of its culture and memory stripped in recent times. What's left is a people who will do anything to copy what they see as the only valuable part of Western culture, it's wealth.

I won't say they are amoral, but the morals are certainly different. There is no feeling of us, only 'me'. You need only look at the wealthy, manipulative, corporate republicans in the US to see where this leads and it's not good. The problem in China is there seems to me no way to avoid it. The new rich in China have no compunction to screw anyone in their path and little notion of community or the golden rule to know anything different. Honor is dead, whereas saving face is all important, the two are very different.

Welfare state? the US? You are clearly misinformed because we pay dearly for this and get very little in return. If the culture of corruption were not so deep in China you might have welfare as well. If you want to do any kind of business there is always someone to pay off, and this goes all the way to the top.

The reason many asians are treated as "foreigners" is because most of them arrived in the last 2 decades. Per the recent Pew research on asian-americans, in 1980, there were 800,000 Chinese, 400,000 Indians in the US. In 2010, there are 3.5 million Chinese, 2.8m Indians.

Those numbers are even more striking if you just look at arrivals in the last decade. From 1980 to 1990, 800k Chinese and 400k Indians arrived in the US. From 1990 to 2000, another 800k Chinese but 800k Indians arrived in the US. From 2000 to 2010, 1.1m Chinese and 1.2m Indians arrived in the US. Since 1990, 1.9m Chinese and 2m Indians have arrived in the US!

Even though the Chinese started to arrive in the 1800s as railroad workers, my guess is, just like the Japanese(or perhaps even more so), those early arrivals have gradually "disappeared" due to inter-marriage. Most of the Chinese you see these days are the late arrivals, so you can't blame us for treating most asians as foreigners, because most of them are! Most(over 90%) of Chinese/Indians I've met speak heavily accented English.

The Chinese carry their money hungry, test crazed, bad manners everywhere. It's how they act too when they move to the US. I'm sick of being surrounded by rude Chinese people, loudly speaking chinese or chinglish everywhere they go. Wish they would just stay in the country they already ruined, but no...they had to come here and ruin my beautiful country too.

Things change. I've lived half of my adult life in China since 1993. Two-periods: mid-90's and 2005-11. I left last year for the same reasons stated in the article. All that and because the party is over. It was fun while it lasted but their economy has been showing cracks for several years now, and is on a turn for the worst. I fear for what lies ahead for my wife's family that will be stuck in a place of a billion angry people when the growth slows and work cannot be found. For twenty years I've watched China, it was a great run...like NOTHING we have ever seen on the planet.

how do you know, perhaps some westerners are looking for silly and exciting food in China, they might looking for cat meat after reading you post, have told you not telling this joke otherwise everybody would think Chinese eats anything that moves, but you seem to have forgotten the warning.

Yes, I was so naive as not to note that you are the very rich guy capable of paying RMB 100k per year to secure a place for your son in the kintergarden in China. But, that may be the norm of payment (some in premium on top of the fee) charged by the private run international school for sure. And you can afford. Then why whine here and why don't you just flee (ultimate solution) as well?

and I think "old foreigner" is just an easier way for the villagers to tell the visitors how to find the guy they are looking for, it's not meant to be insulting, you know the "foreigner" just looks very different to the villagers....